The Liberty haven’t yet established their true identity for this season. But Jonquel Jones has a vision for what New York should be about.
Toughness, togetherness and tenacity: Those are the traits she wants the Liberty to exemplify.
“I want our team to embody the resiliency that the city has, and I think that’s what New York pride is,” Jones said after Wednesday’s 84-74 win.
“That’s [what] in the past, New York basketball has been, and I think we’re getting there.”
Wednesday’s win against the Mercury was a step in the right direction after the Liberty spent most of the first three weeks of the season trying to stay afloat.
New York rebounded from a slow third-quarter start with a 23-0 statement to give the Liberty a 17-point lead entering the fourth.
The Liberty’s aggressive team defense, which included pressing and trapping, rattled Phoenix, which committed six turnovers in the final three minutes of the quarter. New York physically imposed itself on the Mercury and stopped allowing easy looks.
“We were playing defense like we haven’t before,” Leonie Fiebich said. “It was just a different energy out there. That lineup that was on the court was really versatile. We were pressuring the ball, we’re fighting with screens. Yeah, it was a lot of fun to play defense in that third quarter and then people coming off the bench just giving us a lot of energy, it was awesome.”
That 6:09 run was the Liberty’s best stretch of basketball this season. Betnijah Laney-Hamilton and Rebekah Gardner helped set the tone, each drawing two fouls and recording a steal. Jones also was a two-way menace.
“JJ was a force on the defensive end, especially rebounding and really getting us trying to limit them to one shot,” Breanna Stewart said. “I thought that also our adjustments in the second half of really kind of flying to those 3-point shooters — they got too many easy ones in the first.”
Ultimately, Wednesday was a total team effort.
The challenge now is to do it again.
The Liberty expect the Mercury, who’ve lost four straight, to up the intensity in Friday’s rematch.
“I guess they’re gonna be pissed,” Fiebich said. “But we just need to bring the same energy defensively. I think that makes a difference. Shots will fall or not, like, we’re all going to be tired at some stage but just be there on defense.”
First-year coach Chris DeMarco has been tasked with playing “Tetris” with the lineups because of injuries, absences and delayed debuts. On Wednesday, Satou Sabally (illness) warmed up with the intention of playing before being ruled out less than an hour before tipoff.
Sabrina Ionescu (back soreness) also didn’t play.
DeMarco wants the second half of Wednesday’s win to serve as evidence that the Liberty can be one of the league’s best defensive teams when they commit to it.
“We have it in us,” he said. “We know we had it in us, it’s just we had to feel it, get some momentum and just looking at the roster, we have a lot of versatility and a lot of players that we feel like can play and if we pick up the intensity, we get somebody else in if you’re tired. And I just thought it was a good moment for us.
“We’ve been talking about it, we’ve wanted to play this way, aggressively, and I think we got there a little bit but … it’s one game and every game is different.”
